Hadja Saran Daraba Kaba was born in 1945 towards the end of the
Second World War in
Coyah, Guinea into a less well-off family, her father was a soldier and activist under the regime of the late President
Ahmed Sékou Touré. She forged her political weapons at an early age. She trained as a pharmacist in
Leipzig and Halle in
Germany between 1966 and 1979. In 1970, she returned to Guinea where she lectured at Hadja Mafory Bangoura Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy and later joined Pharmaguinée where she rose to become the Deputy National Director of Exports at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. In 1996 she became Minister of Social Affairs and Promotion of Women and Children. == Presidential election ==